Gov.
Gray Davis Friday named a well-known civil appellate lawyer and a member of the
O.J. Simpson prosecution team to the San Diego Superior Court.

The
appointments of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach partner William S.
Dato and Deputy District Attorney George “Woody” Clarke to the San Diego Superior
Court bring to seven the number of trial judges appointed by Davis in the week
preceding tomorrow’s recall election.

Dato,
48, is a certified appellate specialist who has handled major cases involving
class actions, stockholder derivative cases, private attorney general suits,
and antitrust and unfair business practice cases. A graduate of San Diego State
University and UCLA Law School, he was a research attorney for the California
Supreme Court from 1980 to 1981 and California Court of Appeal from 1981 to
1982 and from 1984 to 1994.

He
joined Milberg Weiss in 1982, then returned to the Court of Appeal before
rejoining to the law firm nine years ago. He is an adjunct professor at the
University of San Diego School of Law and at the California Western School of
Law.

He
has been active in the San Diego County Bar Association and served as chair of
the Committee on Administration of Justice of the State Bar of California. He
will fill the vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Joan Irion to the Court
of Appeal.

Clarke,
52, is a nationally recognized expert on the use of DNA and other scientific
evidence in criminal cases. He became a familiar figure during Simpson’s
internationally televised 1995 trial, having been loaned to the Los Angeles
District Attorney’s Office to assist in handling the presentation of DNA
evidence.

He
currently handles serious felony cases and serves as the coordinator of the San
Diego DNA Project, which reviews cases of previously convicted and imprisoned
inmates, and as the coordinator of the San Diego County Program for the
investigation and DNA testing of unsolved sexual assault cases. He also assists
in the drafting of state and federal legislation and training of attorneys,
judicial officers, law enforcement, scientists, legislators, students and
others on the use of DNA evidence.

He
was named 2003 Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year by the California District
Attorneys Association and 2003 Prosecutor of the Year by the San Diego Deputy
District Attorneys Association. He has served as chair of the Criminal Justice
Committee of the San Diego County Bar Association.

A
graduate of UC San Diego and the University of San Diego School of Law, Clarke
was a research attorney for the San Diego Superior Court from 1978 to 1982,
then when he joined the San District Attorney’s Office. He succeeds Judge Dana
Sabraw, who was confirmed last week to serve as judge of the U.S. District
Court for the Southern District of California.

On
Wednesday, the governor named Assistant U.S. Attorney Yvonne Esperanza Campos
and San Diego
estates and trusts lawyer Julia Craig Kelety to the San Diego Superior Court.

Campos,
39, has been a federal prosecutor in San
Diego since 1995 and is
currently a deputy chief in the General Crimes Section. She previously worked
in narcotics enforcement, and was one of the prosecutors in Operation Tarpit, a
successful prosecution which led to the dismantling of one of the largest
heroin smuggling networks operating in the United
States.

She
is a former White House fellow who practiced in the Los
Angeles office of Morrison
& Foerster from 1989 to 1992. In 1991, she was loaned by that firm to the
staff of the Christopher Commission, which recommended reforms in the Los
Angeles Police Department.

A
graduate of StanfordUniversity
and HarvardLawSchool,
she has served on the boards of California Common Cause and California Rural
Legal Assistance.

Kelety
is a partner in a San Diego
firm and a graduate of the University
of Arizona
and CornellLawSchool.

On Tuesday, Davis named Solano County Deputy District
Attorneys Robert S. Bowers and Michael Mattice as judges of the Solano Superior
Court. Those selections followed the appointment on Monday of Leslie G. Landau,
managing partner of the San Francisco office of Bingham McCutchen, as judge of the Contra Costa
Superior Court.